Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
The point was that by showing Chewie as copilot of the falcon, Lucas had set wookies up as a technologically minded dudes and therefore it wouldn't make sense to have them running around shooting bows and arrows and shouting 'chichiwawa'. But I don't buy it. In the Star Wars universe, flying a spaceship is akin to driving a car, and I've seen some real dumbasses drive cars. After years in captivity, it's perfectly feasible that Chewie, living among humans and under the guidance of Han Solo, could have developed his technological knowhow - Just because they are primitive, it doesn't mean they are stupis and unable to learn. Even Wicket the Ewok figured out how to use a speer bike. Yes, the holiday special (which I have sadly never seen, btw) showed them in their home surrounded by computers, etc, but seeing as Lucas has basically eradicated that from Star Wars history, I think it would have been ok to show the Wookies as primitive in ROTJ (and would have made a better movie).
It's funny how he chose to take note of this point for continuity's sake, especially in contrast to the myriad other things he ignored when making the PT...
Not only that, but for the sake of continuity (which I really don't think would have been disrupted), he failed in his suspension of disbelief. A lot of people find it incredibly hard to believe that the Ewoks beat the stormtroopers and AT-STs the way they did.